LIONS coach David Dunn believes young scrum-half Dean Bradley is ready to step into Sam Hardcastle’s lively boots.

Dunn handed Bradley his English Clubs Championship debut in Saturday’s morale-boosting 39-21 win over Weston-Super-Mare at Chapel Gate, as injury-hit Lions bounced back from three consecutive National Three South West defeats in style.

Tries from Rory Hearson (2), Michael Pope (2), Callum Forrest and Domenick Davies were enough to stave off the visitors’ threat of a second-half comeback, with Hearson (two conv, one pen) and Pope (one pen) also chipping in with the extras.

But despite the league campaign being just seven games old, Dunn has already called upon four scrum-halves, with stalwart Hardcastle sidelined for the entire season while he waits for surgery on an ankle injury.

Tony Naulumtatua, Craig Barter and Ryan Maidment have all pulled on the number nine shirt in Hardcastle’s absence, but the position had continued to trouble Dunn until Bradley’s impressive performance.

Dunn said: “Dean played with a lot of composure for his first game in the first-team and he made a big difference. We’ve been lucky with Sam and he is sadly missed. It’s a big void to fill in our side and we’ve been used to having Sam, who is a threat in all departments on the field.

“But we are learning to live without him and we have to because he won’t be with us again until next season.

“We’ve been really unfortunate with the injuries because Craig Barter came in to replace Sam but got injured as well. Ryan Maidment has done a good job when he’s come in to that position, but Dean played well on Saturday.”

Second row Will Brooks also made his debut against Weston – before adding to Dunn’s personnel woes by limping off with a knee injury 23 minutes into the contest.

Dunn, whose side added a try-scoring bonus point to their tally on Saturday, added: “We made a few changes and a couple of those were experiments. But they paid off and we scored six tries.

“People say promotion is not achievable for us now, but in a league where you get four points for a win and try-scoring bonus points, it only takes two or three wins and you are up there.

“We are only one win away from closing in on the top three now and we had the bonus point in the bag before half-time on Saturday.

“We had a very simple game-plan and the players were fantastic. There was nothing too elaborate, but they played some beautiful rugby.

“The back row was outstanding.”